A Japanese medical school had allegedly been altering the entrance test scores of female candidates in order to decrease the number of women getting admission, reported Quartz. According to Japanese media reports, this practice has been going on in Tokyo Medical University since 2011.
School officials say that they believed once women got married and started a family they would be unable to attend their emergency shifts at hospitals.
The test scores are doctored to ensure that not more than 30 percent of the selected candidates are women. According to a report by The Asahi Shimbun, only 30 women were accepted against 141 men in 2018.
An unnamed Tokyo Medical University official called this practice a “necessary evil” and said it was carried out with “quiet consent,” reported Quartz. According to Japanese media reports, the medical school wanted to ensure that there were enough practitioners in its affiliated hospital and there had also been concerns over continuing shortage of doctors in Japan.
While the education ministry of Japan allows universities to set their own gender ratio as long as they are making such quotas public, Tokyo Medical University is in trouble because they had kept quiet about their quotas, reported Quartz. An internal probe into the allegations was ongoing, said a university spokesperson.
Previously, according to Japanese daily The Mainichi, Tokyo Medical University got into trouble for inflating the tests scores of an education ministry bureaucrat’s son.
(With inputs from Quartz, The Asahi Shimbun and The Mainichi.)
(At The Quint, we question everything. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member today.)